It is nearly nine years since the subject of citizenship became a compulsory part of the secondary school national curriculum. Tomorrow the education secretary who made that happen, David Blunkett, will lead a delegation to lobby the current incumbent not to ditch it – law teaching and all.

The government plans to return the national curriculum to what it calls "its intended purpose – a minimum national entitlement organised around subject disciplines", and Michael Gove is expected to announce a review imminently. Supporters of citizenship education – who held a campaign event in the House of Commons last week attended by MPs, peers, teachers, pupils and others – fear the subject will be cut from the core curriculum.

A range of legal and human rights groups support the campaign, which is organised by the umbrella coalition Democratic Life. It includes the Law Society, the Citizenship Foundation (which did much to get the subject on the curriculum in the first place), the Public Legal Education Network, Amnesty International and the British Institute of Human Rights.

Part of the debate will be the extent to which schools should have a role in delivering this kind of learning, as well as whether, unconsciously or otherwise, it promotes the political status quo or a certain view of the world. Equally, citizenship in schools links in with broader issues, such as public legal education and legal aid provision, and highlights the importance of education on legal issues at all levels.

In November the National Foundation for Education Research and the Department for Education (DfE) published the latest findings of a nine-year study on the impact of citizenship education, which tracked a large cohort of students through secondary school. The findings were mixed but overall there was "a marked and steady increase in young people's civic and political participation and indications that these young people will continue to participate as adult citizens". It recommended ways to improve citizenship lessons that would make them more effective.

Indeed, it seems inconsistent with the idea of the "big society" to dump citizenship education – teachers at the event spoke passionately of how their students had engaged with their communities and the wider world through citizenship work. Cassie Ellins, headteacher of Upper Shirley high school in Southampton, recounted a project proposed and delivered by year 10 pupils on lowering the level of criminal responsibility. The students sought views from various people in their community, made a film and invited stakeholders such as the police into the school to discuss their findings. She also recalled how pupils celebrated the release of the Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Citizenship education runs across key stages 3 and 4, and is part of the non-statutory framework for primary schools. The curriculum falls under three main headings – democracy and justice, rights and responsibilities and identities and diversity – with the aim, according to the DfE, of giving pupils "the knowledge, skills and understanding to play an effective role in society".

More than half a million students have achieved either a GCSE or A-level in citizenship. Last week's speakers made pointed reference to recent tuition fees protests outside parliament, suggesting that teaching students about influencing the democratic process might discourage them from throwing fire extinguishers from high roofs.

Law is, of course, an integral part of the citizenship curriculum, helping young people to see the law as a positive framework, and the justice system and those within it as essential protectors of rights and freedoms. One way it does this is by giving police, magistrates, prison officers and lawyers the opportunity to come into schools and engage directly with students.

Since 1999 the Citizenship Foundation, in association with the law firm Linklaters, has run Lawyers in Schools, a programme involving 22 secondary schools, mainly in deprived areas. More than 400 volunteers from 27 law firms and in-house legal departments across the UK work with about 1,000 young people to develop their awareness and understanding of the law.

Two years ago the foundation launched Local Lawyers in Schools, a DIY toolkit and training package to enable small- and medium-sized legal organisations to get involved. It also organises a national magistrates court mock trial competition and the bar national mock trial competition, which between them have nearly 9,000 students from 600 schools taking part this year.

There is other work too – Andrea Charity, an associate prosecutor at the Crown Prosecution Service, won the public servant of the year category at the women in public life awards last autumn for her work in developing the service's national schools project. This educates 11- to 16-year-olds about CPS decision-making and how the service can help them as young witnesses.

There is a persuasive argument that we cannot whinge about apathetic youth while not giving them the tools to engage with society. As Tom, a student from Newent school in Gloucestershire, told last week's event: "Some of the things we learn in subjects like maths we won't be using in five years. But citizenship will be in our lives forever."